Archive for the 'work' Tag

Resume / portfolio Optimization

I’ve been working on my Curriculum Vitae, in preparation for the launch of AndrewJBonham.com. It’s very much still a work in progress, but I wanted to have a “professional” site to advertise myself. Then, when I’m applying for jobs, I can reference it, and if I do a little SEO (search engine optimization), it’ll be near the top when potential employers google for information on me. All good, except that I feel like my C-V is pretty blah right now (and I need to make a resume, too!).

So, I’m curious– what have you done to put some razzle-dazzle into your C-V or resume? (continued)

Candidacy Exam Anticipation… Forever!

As a warning, this is going to be a bit of a whining post, but I really want to get it out. I’m in a molecular biology PhD program and in my specific program I have to write an approximately 20 page proposal on a topic (completely unrelated to the topic I’m actually studying in my lab) and then defend it in front of four established professors in my department (usually in a 3+ hours meeting with only white boards as props) in order to advance to candidacy. I’m at the stage where I submitted my proposal, have done a mock defense, and am now just waiting for the thing to be scheduled (professors are busy!)… it’s now been over 3 weeks since I submitted it and there’s no date picked.
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First author Andrew!

I know it’s been a long time since Andrew posted here, so I thought I’d take the initiative and post the news that Andrew is now a First Author on a paper just accepted by JACS!! A happy upturn in the horse latitudes of research!

edit: Detection of Sequence-Specific Protein-DNA Interactions via Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering

Whistling dixie as the ship sinks

Ever wake up and realize that that spinning is no longer the rotational forces exerted by the earth’s orbit, that it is actually your life slowly unraveling. A long time ago I laid out a simple plan for the direction of my life. (ME + wife)*(MS+PhD) = job^happiness. Well, I got the wife and shortly thereafter what I discovered was that no matter how hard I tried I was in a doldrum. No motivation to do the things I want to; no desire to accomplish the goals or even basic responsibilities. It’s a terrible feeling to see everything you need to do and just not have the motivation to finish or even start any of it. (continued)

Where Was I?

I was going over my links tonight, and I realized that I haven’t posted anything on ParadoxDruid.com in quite a while. It’s never intentional– I love the opportunity to have a soapbox on the internet, and I hope that if you see this page you enjoy it. I have a new theory to sum up my vacancy, then: You never lose old responsibilities, you just gain new ones. Hence, the older you are, the more things you’re trying to juggle at once. I assume by the time I’m seventy, I’ll be too busy to sleep. More prattle and things that have been going on if you continue…
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Candidacy Exam

I just wanted to post a brief update, and maybe a call for well-wishing. My Exam for Advancement to PhD Candidacy (a.k.a. the Candidacy Exam) is this Friday at 3 pm. It’s kind of strange. On one hand, it’s probably the biggest, most important (and final) test I’ll ever take. On the other hand, it’s on stuff that I work with everyday and with which I’m very familiar. But I think I’m ready… but I wouldn’t mind it at all if you all kept me in your thoughts on Friday.

Four to Six Hour Workdays… the key to happiness?

That’s what this article claims, in any case. I tend to agree, being the meditative and leisurely guy that I am. What I found most interesting, though, was the throwaway line about the economist Keynes. Apparantly, he recommended shorter workdays as well… I may need to track this down.

No real story here, other than a mildly interesting article and my obsessive-compulsive nature.

Some jobs are worse than others

Waiter Rant is a fun-to-read blog about the shit that a waiter has to go through at a high-end New York City bistro.  Worth a read, especially if you think your job is bad.

I’m in the wrong field or I’m sane or both

A while back, a co-worker of mine posted an editorial they had clipped from Nature, which was the advice of an experienced researcher to potential graduate students in the sciences titled “What makes a good graduate student?”.

Now, either I’m a textbook example of a piss-poor graduate student, or the author is an elitist crazy and I’m sane. Read on to see snippets of her “advice”, and my incredulity and disbelief. (continued)